Public Record

Harry Hunters Closed Down London Nightspot "Public"

An unputdownable–for-all-the-wrong reasons interview in the London Evening Standard with Howard Spooner, the owner of former Prince Harry hotspot Public, the London club which closed earlier this year.

Spooner says that the ‘Harry hunters’ forced the closure of the club: “Obviously seeing Prince Harry in a club drives a certain amount of crowd because he’s a big draw wherever he goes…Instead of having 700 people through the doors and turning away 100, we were turning away 1,000 sometimes. It was a ridiculous situation.”

Elsewhere in the interview Spooner attempts to clarify a previous claim that: “If someone with a disability complains, it has 10 times the weight of an able-bodied person’s complaint.”

He tells Standard writer Joshi Hermann: “I’ve got to be careful about saying it fully again... am I allowed to say dwarf? … Is dwarf an acceptable word? … Okay, there was a dwarf in a wheelchair who lives nearby…As soon as we wanted to cross-examine him [during the court hearing] there was a big sigh in the court room from all the residents, who were amazed. Now, why should his — not general people in wheelchairs, his specifically — why should his testimony have more credibility than somebody else’s? That’s all I was saying. It’s got nothing to do with my views about the disabled, which I’m extremely sympathetic to, I’m a big charity contributor. I’ve got emails galore from people in wheelchairs who have been entertained in all of my clubs, but especially in Public.”